Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1887-11-03
Curious Fires.


SINGULAR INSTANCES OF SPONTANEOUS COMBUSTION
ACCOUNTED FOR.
From New York Fire and Water
Scarcely month passes that careful fnvestga-
ton into the causes Of fires does not reveal some
new hazard Of greater or less Importance, or make
know Instances OF the starting OF fires under cir.
cumstances hitherto considered impossible.
Cotton in bales has always been supposed to be
free from spontaneous combustion until lately,
when case was discovered in q st0rehOuSe In
Northern New Jersey. number OF bales Of sea-
island cotton stored there were found TO be on
fire. and when 1t was extinguished In one spot II
would break out in another. A careful examina-
tfon OF the cotton and its condition showed that
1t was roller gin cottOn-that Is cotton which had
not been run through gang Of saws, after the
drawn away from the seeds by pair OF rolls, one
large and one small, set at Just the distance To
keep the seeds from passing through, while the
fiber pasSeS on and goes Into a bag.
1t was FOUND in this lot or cotton that some the
seeds had passed into the rolls and been cracked
which caused the oil TO eXude, Saturatiny the ber
which was thus by the time ~ arrived In the North
in the proper condition tor spontaneous cOnbus-
ton. Careful and extensive inquiry among North
ern mills failed TO reveal any other such case and
therefore IL can hardly be taken as a strong OBJ.
lection against the use Of roller gins in general
The ordinary roller gin is practically prehistoric
tool as iC has been In use since cotton was known
In ancient India. 1t Is not nearly fast as the
ordinary saw gin, but IL said to do its work some
what better and with the least possible injury to
the fiber, and to be- therefore, preferred for sea
island cotton, which is OF long fiber and almost
double the value OF the ordinary grades
Another curious fire was that which occurred in
a knife factory In Massachusetts, In the middle
OF a room small milling machine was working
on hardwood handles OF knives. The dust OF
small fragments OF the wood which were ground
on were drawn up through a metal tube about
one foot in diameter by a blower In the room
above, and thence forced through q wooden pipe
out into the air. A spark from an emory wheel,
fifteen feet away from the milling machine struck
"a window twenty-feet away. aud glancing back
entered the mouth OF the metal tube and set the
hardwood dust on fire, "A stream OF which twenty
feet In length poured out OF the wooden pipe into
the air. The alarm was given by the people out.
side, the workmen in the room being entirely I'M
aware OF any fire.
Another peculiar instance was a IRE started by
some cotton waste which an engineer In cleaning
up mill put in the front OF boiler wherett would
be convenient for the iremen to burn In the morn
ing. During the night the waste got on IRE from
spontaneous combustion and set IRE to the kind.
ungs and succeeded In raising sufficient to
cause the Loler blow on, very thoroughly scar
ing the Waterman, who naturally thought the
| boiler which he knew had been left without fre
Was going to explode.
Sti1l another singular case was that OF q fre
caused In the picker-rOOm OF Jute mill by mar
driving a nail In the ceiling The nail glanced OF
and was struck by the rapidly moving heaters, and
the sparks which were caused thereby led to 9
serious blaze.